This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 2012 Oregon Handmade show. This years turnout was much better than last years for both exhibitors and attendees. One of the exhibitors, Vultures Cycles, had a newly built Mini-Velo bike on hand. And after riding it, it quickly became my favorite bike at the show.

Vulture Cycles is based out of Bend, OR, and consists of one man, Wade Beauchamp. He has been in the frame building business for long time, and is known for using square gage tubing set at an angle for his rear stays. Usually, you will find Wade building mountain bikes, or doing contract work for others. But on the Wednesday before the show you would have found him building this Mini-Velo out of scrap he had in the shop. After speaking with Wade about the bike, I learned that this is a rough prototype for a “stock production” model he is planning on making. The estimated final build would come in a male and female version, along with a generator hub and lights, and a rear basket. The idea is to create a simple urban commuter that will fit in your small apartment. All I know is that a single speed, 20″ wheeled, coaster brake equiped bike is simple and fun to ride. And with a little practice you can even do bar spins.

Past the break you’ll find more Mini-Velo images, plus product from Bike Friday, including a $7700 folding race bike designed by Rob English.

With such a long headtube, Wade moved the VC logo to the rear stay bridge, and used a sticker usually reserved for the seat tube to brand the front of the Mini-Velo. Wade also rode this bike all around Portland for the weekend while he was in town for the show. And those wheels, they came off a kids bike he nabbed from a thrift store.

Bike Friday, known for making custom folding bikes, had this 2012 SRAM Red equipped folding race bike on hand. When not doing his own builds, Rob English does engineering work for the company, and he had a hand in making this custom racer. The price tag is as much as a full custom carbon bike would be too, at a whopping $7700. That super long seat post is titanium with Thompson hardware a top.

Any legitimate racing folder wouldn’t be complete without a set of Rolf Prima’s 20″ Apex wheels, weighing in at just 1250g.

Also on display from Bike Friday was this Nuvinci 360 / Belt Drive equipped bike complete with fenders and racks.

This belt drive folder caught my attention as well. It was built up using a drum brake front hub and a Shimano Nexus internally geared rear hub with a disc brake.

Comments

Bike Friday = best folding bikes on the market. And now they are taking themselves to a whole new level.

Slow Joe Crow - 10/25/12 - 5:18pm

I so want that NuVinci equipped Bike Friday for commuting on, The Tikit frame folds like lightning, even quicker than a Brompton.

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